


Yesterday

by sg_wonderland



Series: Days series [17]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 21:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8176244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sg_wonderland/pseuds/sg_wonderland
Summary: Daniel looks to the past and the future





	

Jack is humming softly to the song on the radio as he drives through the rain to the daycare. Most of the time, he turns the radio off or changes the station as soon as a Beatles song comes on because he thinks they make me sad. They did but I’m not a stupid little kid; I’ve grown up a lot in the past year. I don’t cry over Beatles songs anymore. At least not where Jack can see me.

I’ll never, ever, forget that a year ago I went to sleep in the Egyptian desert, with my parents. That part of my life ended when I woke up on a planet a million miles away surrounded by strangers. 

But I also know that what I have right now is pretty good too. I look at some of the kids in daycare, at school, and realize how bad this could have been for me. I’ve had nightmares about what would have happened if Jack hadn’t taken me in. There wouldn’t have been a happily-ever-after anywhere in my future.

I remember Max crying every single day for a month when his mom and dad split up. There aren’t enough hugs and fudge brownies in the world to make up for that.

“Now, you know Carter’s coming to get you, right?” Jack glances over his shoulder at me when he stops for traffic.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes because I’ve heard this at least a dozen times today. “She’s coming to get me as soon as she gets her stuff done. And I’m gonna stay at her house while you’re out of town.”

“And you’re going to behave yourself for her, right?”

I sigh inwardly and bite back the smart remark on my tongue. “Jack.”

“I’m gonna miss you, kid.” He sounds so sincere that I squirm at my impatience. “One of these days, we’re gonna find a nice safe planet to take you to.” We both smile at that thought.

“I’ll bet Sam wishes she were going with you.” Unfortunately for Sam, but fortunately for me, she broke her wrist so she has to stay home until it’s out of the cast. I would normally stay with Grandma and Grandpa but Sam begged to keep me since she says she doesn’t get to see me very often and she thinks they could use the break.

Jack laughed out loud when he heard she’d wrecked not her motorcycle, but a bicycle. I think he was really asking for it when he offered to put the training wheels back on for her. I didn’t find that was really very funny, since I haven’t gotten mine off yet. I still don’t quite have the balance it takes. Or the confidence, I suppose. At least I haven’t broken a bone yet. I may have to casually point that out to Sam sometime in the next few days.

“I don’t know, I think she was looking forward to having you all to herself for three days.”

I adopt an innocent look. “She said to remind you to leave a credit card so she can take me shopping for clothes.” Jack hates shopping, so he’s glad to let someone else do it. Then he pretends to be shocked when he sees the bills.

A horrified expression wipes the smile away. “Again? Didn’t I just get you new clothes?”

“Play clothes, Jack. I need some more uniforms and Sam said I need something dressier for, you know, the holidays.” Not really my favorite time of the year, but there’s not a lot I can do about that.

“Oh, God,” he yelps. “Tell me she’s not gonna get you a suit. I hate little kids in suits.”

“You’re not the only one.” I agree with him wholeheartedly as he mutters something about penguins. “But she was thinking something more like dress pants and nice sweaters.” At least, that’s what I’m suggesting.

We’re at the daycare by now, so Jack parks as close as he can get and orders me to wait for him to come back. I undo the seat belt and contemplate crawling out and charging through the rain but I don’t want him to leave mad at me so I pretend to be patient as he brings a borrowed umbrella out. He doesn’t own one because real men don’t need umbrellas. But I don’t fall into the real men category and I just got over the flu, which wasn’t good for either of us. Really.

Jack was pretty upset when I got sick even though Dr. Chi had given me a flu shot. I guess he thought the shot came with a money-back guarantee that you wouldn’t get the flu. But it went through the daycare pretty good and I’ve always had such incredible luck.

Ever since then, he’s been feeling guilty and hovers a lot. He couldn’t take time off, so Grandma stayed at the house for a week to take care of me. The first few days, I was so sick that I didn’t even know who was there and who wasn’t. By the time I was aware of what was going on, Jack was back and all I had to do was lie in bed and let them baby me. 

I found out later that Dr. Fraiser suggested moving me to a hospital because of my allergies. I was really glad Jack talked her out of that because there’s nothing more depressing than being sick away from home.

So here we are in the pouring rain and Jack’s worried about me. He grabs me up, prepared to carry me in to the daycare. Embarrassed, I try to squirm away but he just tightens his hold on me, shoves the door closed with his hip and, making sure he has me protected from the rain, carries me into the daycare.

Fortunately, the entryway is empty and I quickly determine that no one saw him carry me like I was a baby or something. He stands me up on the bench so that I’m pretty close to eye level. “Okay, be a good boy for Carter.”

“I will, Jack.”

“Miss me just a little, okay?” He tweaks my nose.

“I suppose I might miss you. Just a little bit.” I admit.

He gives me a quick hug and kiss, whispering in my ear that he loves me. I nod to let him know I love him too, even if I can’t say it out loud where someone might hear me. “Be careful, okay?” I try not to let him know how much it worries me when he goes through the gate. I don’t really know what goes on out there but I think that a lot of what he and Sam and Teal’c do is dangerous.

“Don’t worry; Teal’c’s been training a new Marine squad so they’re coming with. I might not even have to do a watch or anything.”

“Yeah, ‘cause it takes an entire Marine squad to make up for not having Sam.”

“Ain’t that the truth?” He sets me down on the floor, pats my butt and sends me on my way.

Because there’s no one looking, I stand at the window and watch him drive away in the pouring rain.

*

“You’re nuts, Daniel.” Max pronounces as he peers at my painting. “What is that?”

Before I can say anything, I hear a voice behind us. “Silly, it’s Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night.’ It’s beautiful, Daniel.” Kellee pops up behind me, making funny eyes. She has a crush on Max and for some reason she thinks ignoring him is the way to get his attention. I don’t think I’ll ever understand girls. “Anyway, Daniel, Miss Amy wants you in the music room.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask her.”

“Okay.” I take off the painting smock and clean up my area, hanging my painting up to dry. 

*

 

I find Miss Amy in the music room with a stranger. “Daniel, thank you for coming. This is Dr. Alexander Quimby, from the university here. He’d like to hear you play, if that’s alright?”

“Yes, ma’am.” I walk over to the piano. It’s an upright with adjustable pedal extensions so the kids can use them when we need to. Miss Amy helps me adjust the seat to fit my height. “Is there anything special you want me to play?”

“Anything you’d like, Daniel.”

I think for a minute then remember the song on the radio this morning. It’s a nice song and the music is pretty even without the words.

After I finish, Dr. Quimby walks over. “You do not use music?”

His accent sounds faintly Slavic, maybe Austrian or something close. “Usually, but I just had that song in my head. I like it. Miss Taylor teaches us all kinds of music.” That’s one of the reason I like her so much; I was afraid I’d never get to play anything but classical music.

“That was a fine piece, Daniel. It’s easy to see you have a feel for the instrument. How long have you been playing?”

“My father played and he taught me some stuff. I’ve been taking lessons about eight months now.”

“You’re very talented. However, I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you that. Will you play something else for me, a classic, perhaps?” I nod in agreement and he takes his seat again. His accent sparks a bit of mischief in me and I play a piece from the Strauss operetta “A Night in Venice”. Glancing over, I see the smile on his face and I know he appreciated it.

Afterwards, he shakes my hand, thanks me politely and follows Miss Amy to the office.

Okay, that was weird.

*

Luckily, it has almost quit raining by the time Sam comes to pick me up. We’re watching for her so Miss Jackie walks me out with an umbrella, holding it over me until I get in.

“Hey, Daniel, good day?”

“It was okay. How’s your hand?”

She holds up her left hand, with the vibrant purple cast. If I ever break something, I so want a cast like that, not the plain old white one. Maybe a red one, wonder if they do camouflage ones; that would be really cool. Not that I want to break anything. “Not too bad. It really doesn’t hurt anymore, except when I forget and bang it on something. Janet wants us to come over for dinner tonight, if that’s okay with you?”

It’s Friday and there’s no school tomorrow so that sounds like a good idea. “Cool. Did Jack drop off my stuff?”

“Yeah, got it right here. And the credit card.” We share a grin of conspiracy.

*

I like spending time with Sam. I know that Jack likes to think she lets me get away with murder but that really isn’t true. She makes me keep my bedtime, won’t let me just eat junk food and limits my TV and computer time. 

Plus she fixed up her guest room just for me. Some of my books and games and clothes have wandered over here and never got back home. She swears the Xbox 360 was just to keep Jack and Teal’c occupied. The bathroom has some of my stuff in it, too, so that’s pretty neat.

We sit down every night at a table and have real food and real conversation. Sam will tell me things that I don’t think Jack would tell me. I know he thinks he is protecting me, but sometimes, I just like to see the whole picture, not just a little bit of it. I need to know.

But what I really appreciate about Sam is that she talks to me, not at me, which is what a lot of adults do. They look at your size and assume you don’t understand stuff. Sam never assumes I can’t understand, she just explains what’s going on like I’m on her level or something. I suspect this is how she treated the other Daniel and I like the fact that sometimes, she doesn’t seem to recognize the difference.

*

When I walk out of Miss Taylor’s house on Monday evening, Jack is sitting on the hood of his truck. I launch myself off the steps and across the yard; he catches me in midair. “So, miss me after all?” He swings me up in his arms.

“Maybe.” I wind my arms around his neck and squeeze hard.

“Good evening, Colonel O’Neill.” Miss Taylor comes down the steps like a regular person.

“Good evening, Miss Taylor. How’d my boy do?”

“Daniel was fine, as always.” She smiles at both of us.

Jack sets me on my feet, pointing his remote at the truck. “Go on out to the truck, I want to speak to Miss Taylor.”

Translated, that means they want to talk about me. I trudge to the truck and climb in the back seat, digging my MP3 player out of my backpack.

When Jack opens the door, I am lying full length across the back seat, backpack for a footrest, eyes closed, listening to the music. “Get your feet out of the seat, put your seat belt on.” I deliberately slide behind him, where he can’t see me clearly in the rear view. He isn’t fooled in the least. “Other side, please, Daniel.” I comply, slowly. He waits for me before he starts the truck. After a few minutes, he speaks. “Okay, spill it. What’s wrong?”

“You and Miss Taylor were talking about me?”

“Yup.”

“You know I hate that, right?”

“Yup.”

“So why were you talking about me?”

“You remember the other day, a man came to the daycare and listened to you play?”

“Oh, yeah, Dr. Quimby. I think he’s from Austria.” I muse out loud. “And..?”

“And he teaches music at the university and tutors a few students. Miss Taylor wanted him to hear you play because she thinks you need to go to him for lessons.”

“But I like Miss Taylor!” I protest.

“Yeah, I do, too. But she feels like you need more than she can give you.” He stops at an intersection and looks over his shoulder at me. “Daniel,” his voice suddenly very serious, “you know you’re pretty good at the piano, right?”

“Yeah.” When you take individual lessons, there isn’t a lot to compare yourself to. But at our last recital, it was pretty apparent that I was way ahead of the other students. “But I still don’t want to leave.”

“Okay, how about this? I take you up to the university to see Quimby, you play for him there and then we can talk about it? He may think you need to stay right where you are. But you have to make me a promise?”

“Okay.”

“You have to do your best, play your best. No sandbagging, okay?”

“Since I don’t know what that is, it’d be hard for me to do it.” I point out.

*

“Daniel,” he points to the couch. Wondering what I did wrong now, I trudge over and sit down. “I know you like Miss Taylor and I won’t make you change teachers if that isn’t what you really want to do.” He makes sure he is looking me straight in the eyes as he sits on the coffee table. “I would never force you to do something you weren’t comfortable doing, you know that, right?”

I feel guilty that Jack could even think that. “Yes, Jack, I know that you only want what’s best for me.”

“Okay, here’s the thing. I was gonna surprise you for Christmas, but after this little discussion, I think I’d better just tell you. Miss Taylor thinks I need to buy you a piano. A good piano, not just the keyboard you’ve been using to practice on. But I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to put pressure on you to continue playing. I know that you like to play and I love hearing you play. I want you to have a real piano.”

I’m stunned for a moment. “Jack, that’s too expensive.”

“Hey, you let me worry about the money. As it is, I’ve been looking and I can get a good used one for a lot less. And your grandparents want to chip in, too, so it won’t be as much as you think. If, and that’s a big if, when you get older, you want to seriously pursue the music thing, then we’ll see about getting one of those baby grands. Might have to mortgage the house or something, but, hey, you know…”

I’m torn. I would love to have a good piano…but I don’t know if I want to make a career choice at six and I do know that a lot of professional pianists started out as prodigies. I don’t think I’m quite on that level yet.

“Daniel?”

“Can I think about it?”

“Sure you can, there’s plenty of time between now and Christmas. So, let’s take your stuff upstairs and you can tell me what you and Carter did this weekend.”

Jack grabs my suitcase, I grab my backpack and my rabbit and we head up the stairs. The bags of clothes from the mall are still in the hallway; they all have to go through the laundry before I can wear them. “Well, Friday, Sam and I parachuted with Ferretti, then we all took Mitchell to the rodeo and he rode the bulls.”

“Hmm, I’m sensing there is quite a bit of bull in this story.” Jack is sorting through my dirty clothes, separating the colors.

“Ask Mitchell, he’ll tell you. Then on Saturday, we rode motorcycles, without our helmets because we wanted to get bugs in our teeth. We spent the rest of the night drinking and I had to drive both of them home. And Sunday we laid around and watched TV all day.”

“I suspect there’s only one bit of truth in that whole tale. I think you’ve been around me too long, kid.” He slaps his hands together. “Okay, pajamas, teeth, then bed. I’ll be back to tuck you in.” Gathering the dirty clothes, he heads to the washer. He’s really funny about letting laundry pile up; he always says you never know when something will happen and you might need clean underwear. Sounds an awful lot like something Grandma would say.

After I do all that bedtime stuff, I sit down at the keyboard, idly run my fingers over the keys. Playing reminds me of my dad. His father wanted him to be a concert pianist and I wonder if he disapproved of my mother stealing him away into archaeology. But do I love it enough to make a life out of playing it? I honestly don’t know.

“Hey, kid, I thought you were supposed to be in the bed?”

I turn off the keyboard and climb in. “Jack?”

He sits down beside me, takes one of my hands in his. “Yeah?”

“I really, really want a piano.” I blurt out.

“Then you’ll get one.”

“But…”

“No buts. I don’t want you to worry; I promise you I can afford it.”

“Maybe you can use my money.”

“Huh?”

“You know, from when I was big.” I know Jack put the money he got from selling the adult Daniel’s stuff in the bank.

“No, that’s what I’m gonna use to send you to college. Over and over and over.”

My fingers tangle with his. “I’m only going to college once.”

“I’m sure that’s what you thought the first time around, too. No, that money is your college money. The piano is a gift.” He holds our entwined hands up as I start to speak. “No worrying about how much it costs. In fact, I forbid you to worry about anything at all. Six year olds should only worry about whether the girls at school like them.”

I shake my head as he turns off the light, holds the covers as I settle in. “I don’t understand that stuff, Jack. Kellee likes Max so she acts like he’s not even there. That’s crazy.”

“That, my young friend,” he leans over and kisses me, “is what makes love so wonderful. Sometimes, it takes you by surprise.”

Love is a funny thing, I think as I lie there in the dark. Grandma and Grandpa love me even though I’m not really theirs; Jack loved me almost instantly, enough that he changed his whole life for me and fought Dr. Ballard to keep me. Sam has kid stuff at her house and Teal’c patiently picks me up and puts me back on my bike, no matter how many times I fall off. Maybe that’s love, too. I’ll ask Jack tomorrow, I decide as my eyes droop shut.


End file.
